Perspectives: Day 5

"I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." ~ Psalm 119:11

Last night's Perspectives class was incredible! It was different in a way I never would have expected. Instead of the usual sermon based on the readings from the Perspectives textbook, this week the speaker gave his testimony. But this was no ordinary testimony, and it didn't stop at his conversion to Christianity. There was so much more to it than that.

For safety, I'm going to refer to the speaker as Mr. Tim. (I can't give his full name because the government in his country could have him killed for what he's doing.) Mr. Tim was born into a Muslim family in a small country in south Asia. As a descendant of a line of imams (Muslim spiritual leaders), he was expected to continue the family "business." (Being an imam in his country was a very lucrative business.) But when he went to Muslim "seminary," something happened that changed his life: he found Jesus in the Qur'an. The Qur'an says that Jesus was the Word, but this was confusing to Mr. Tim because he had always been taught that the Qur'an was the word of God. How could a Man be the Word of God? After much searching, Mr. Tim met a missionary who introduced him to the life and mission of Jesus Christ, and he became a Christian. Unfortunately, being a Muslim-to-Christian convert is very difficult. Among all people, he was considered a traitor of the Islamic faith, even among Christians. The local Christians didn't want him because he was a traitor, and if they baptized him, they could all be killed by the government; and his Muslim family excommunicated him.

Eventually, after years of training abroad, Mr. Tim became a leader at a church in his country. He was blessed when the missionary who had taught him sent six young men to him; these young men were also Muslim, but they, like Mr. Tim, had found Jesus in the Qur'an and had become very interested. They wanted to have Jesus in their lives, and they wanted to become Christians. But Mr. Tim, to the indignation of the missionary, told them, "You don't have to become a Christian to have Jesus in your heart. Go back to your family. Go to the mosque with them when they go. But when you go, pray in your heart to God in the name of Jesus. Pray continually, and your life will be changed, so much so that those around you will notice and become curious. Share your faith in this way, and you will still be accepted by your friends and family, and you will have a greater impact on them than if you simply publicly declared your conversion to Christianity." So the six young men went home. A month later, they came back to Mr. Tim with sixteen elderly men, their fathers and uncles. Another month later, they returned yet again with another group of men. And again the next month. And the next. This continued for several years until the Christian movement became a national movement. This explains the title of this week's topic: Unleashing the Gospel.

About twenty years after his conversion, Mr. Tim decided to give something to his country to help them and to aid in the spread of Christianity. With the help of some foreign technology, Mr. Tim and his team turned the least profitable industry in his country into the most profitable. His team of Muslim Christians trained other Muslim Christians in the business, and they went out into the country to plant more production sites. The industry now gives the Muslim Christians a way to witness to Muslims in the country, and it also allows them to provide money for themselves and for all the people.

To wrap things up, Mr. Tim closed with two prayer requests. First, please pray for the Muslim Christians as they continue to live out their faith in a way that would make others see the light of Christ. Pray that the foreign Christians in the country would accept them as their own brothers and sisters in Christ.

And second, pray for the translation of the Bible. There is currently a translation of the Bible in Mr. Tim's native language, but their are several errors that make it impossible for Muslims to even consider listening to anything a Christian might have to say. So Mr. Tim and his team are translating the Bible into a more "Muslim friendly" dialect. But they continue to face persecution from Christians: the Christian publishing company claims to have a copyright on the Bible. (As Mr. Tim said, "You can't have a copyright on the Bible. It's public domain!") So pray that the Christian publishing company in his country would allow him and his team to publish their translation of the Bible so that the gospel can be preached to all people throughout the country.

Basically, both prayer requests add up to this: Pray for the reduction of persecution in Mr. Tim's country, mainly from Christians who don't understand what it really means to be Christian.

The point of Mr. Tim's testimony was this: Christianity = Jesus + nothing. Faith in Christ is all that is required for salvation. There are no legalistic rules that can add to or take away from our salvation. Mr. Tim and the Muslim Christians give a new meaning to the term coexist.